Sunday, May 27, 2007

Cheeseland

"I'm going to Cheeseland, Cheeseland, the
Dells and Door County..."
parody of "Graceland" by Paul Simon, dunno who sang it (sorry)

So, what can I say about our hefty neighbors to the north? I mean, besides the fact that they talk funny? Well, they do make fine dairy products, beer, and bratwurst up there. See, I'm starting off nice! Anyway, I've been going up there for basically as long as I can remember, sometimes to deliver, almost always to pick up (you guessed it!) CHEESE! We pick up all our mozzarella from a little dairy in the central part of the state (can't say which) - most of it is for
our own distribution center, but not all. Some truckloads get shipped off to Ohio, Georgia and other states. There must be other cheese suppliers for our company, but I don't know who/where they are. But again, it's the whole thing with the backhauls; cleaning out the trailers,
pre-cooling in the summer time, etc. The nice thing is that they're open good and early (5:00am I think) so you can get your last delivery off, and go right over there - kind of a pain to get to -
still, sometimes you have guys in there before you & have to wait, it's all part of the job. They load you up w/20 pallets usually on a 45foot trailer, and yer off! Of course you have to scale, 'cause it's about 38, 39K they put on, but they have one right there that you can use for free - you gotta scale each axle, the subtract the weight, etc., but it beats paying the $10, & $11 at a truckstop. I mean, the only weigh station you worry about is the Racine scale, which is not always open, but better safe than sorry. I always used the "7-hole" rule that I spoke of earlier, and I would slide the tandems before I got loaded, and damn if it didn't scale out perfect every time. That's on a 45 footer, 48's might be different, but not too much.
I haven't had to go pick up mozzarella on my current route, thank God! But there's other chit, like frozen thin crusts in Green Bay and parmesan in Plymouth. Oh, joy! I guess it's not too bad - both those place are real efficient, so you can get in & out relatively quickly, so I can't bitch too much. Yeah, so I'm coming south the other day, just having done my pickup in Green Bay, and lo and behold, I come up to the scales at Manitowoc. No problem, 7:00 am almost always closed, right? Not today. So, I roll in, turn off lights, roll down windows, roll onto the scale. I know I'm not heavy, 'cause I got 8 pallets at just over 10k. But the guy says "OK, pull around for a routine inspection." I'm like wtf! So, I bring all my paperwork in, everything was fine, just a routine check. The trooper was the nicest guy, so it was just the incovenience of having to stop. I have never been stopped before, so I was shitting my pants there for a minute. Now with the big inspections coming up (6/5 - 6/7) I can understand. Shit, I'd rather be certified legal than have to dick around with getting red flagged or something, ya know? I'm actually surprised the guy didn't inspect my brakes. Anyway, 15 minutes later I was rolling again, so no biggie.
Look, I rail against the Cheese-dicks and YaHeyDer and the ultra-Germanics of WI, but I really got no problem with any one person or place. I mean, I lived in Sheboygan for a year and a half.
It was an experiment that failed miserably, but it wasn't anyone's fault, except maybe mine & my wife's. Our daughter was like 1 1/2, and the place we were living was becoming more and more "dangerous" (you notice these things when you have kids). So, my old man lived up in Sheboygan, a wholesome-enough place, so we took the plunge. Well, it was a nightmare from the start. I couldn't find work, at least nothing in the "white-collar" area, where I was used to being at the time. The employment office said that 42% of all jobs in the area were in manufacturing.
That's quite a bit! So, I found a customer service job at a furniture manufacturer; that whole
period of time was a friggin' nightmare. It was winter, I had the car, so my wife and baby daughter were stuck in the house. Plus, as the downstairs tenants, we were responsible for shoveling the snow, mowing the lawn, etc. WTF! The idiots upstairs didn't have to do a damn thing. Well, I got fired from the furniture place after 3 or 4 months; I just didn't get all the engineering bullshit they made us learn. But, looking back, that's ok. I found a job at a window-screen company, where I was "working", ya know; simple pretty mindless stuff, which was fine.
Then, I come home one day, and the wife's gone, she took the kid & moved back to Chicago without warning (that's a book by itself). She left me the dog to take care of though, geesh!
Anyhow, 6 months later, we reconciled, I moved back to Chicago, and the "experiment" was over. Our biggest complaints was that the things we were used to (24 hr. grocery store, for example) they just didn't have up there. It seemed everything closed by like 6 or 7pm, and nothing was open on Sundays, except the churches of course. The weather was kinda cold there, too, 'cause that part of WI juts out into Lake Michigan (check yer atlas) so the cool lake breezes come in and freeze ya!
But it's done; now it's just a drive-by. I had a couple friends I stayed in touch with, but eventually, well, you know. So, now I'm just up there part of Thurs. and Fri. - everything has gone fairly smoothly, maybe except for the weather, but that's coming around, too. I really can't complain too much. Just glad I'm not in Michigan. Anyway, the talk of keeping me out in IA for three days, with one overnight in Chicago (my previous schedule) has become more serious, so it appears I won't be long for America's Dairyland.

More soon,

Steve

P.S. All you drivers watch out for the roadside inspections (see above) 'cause I'm "crappin' you negative"

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Truckstops

"I gotta find a hole, in more ways than one..." me

Our home away from home, the fabulous truckstop. Oh, yes! Well, not being a true OTR trucker, I'm not as familiar with them as most of y'all, but I'll give you my impressions anyway.
We have the "Big 4," as I call them; you know them, right? Petro, Pilot, TA, and Flying J. I have my personal faves, for different reasons. Some I like because of the food, some because of the easy-ness of fueling, etc. I'm the kind of driver who likes the larger ones, with 24hr services. These little "hole-in-the-wall" places that shut down at 10pm, and open again at 5am are for the birds. I mean, sometimes you have to stop there, either because you're low on hours, nothing else around, breakdown, etc. But since I start at 2:00 in the morning sometimes, I need to have
a store where I can get coffee, cigs, etc. in the "middle of the night." I used to love to go to the World's Largest (debateable) Truckstop in Walcott, IA, usually on my way back from Des Moines. They have an incredible gift shop, and they added on this section with a truck showroom, with life-sized models of the more popular trucks, all shiny and chromed-out. Pretty
cool.
Then you have the "2nd tier" level of truckstops, not as many, but some still pretty big. Loves, Williams, AM Best, Sapp Bros., et al. Some of the larger gasoline chains have them as well: Citgo, BP, Mobil - I see a lot of these in WI, outside the larger cities. But again, ya gotta worry about the hours they're open. And many times, the only food they have is fast-food, chains that are
right there in the truckstop (Pilot/Arby's comes to mind). Some you can't even get hot food at, you have to do the old "chips and soda" routine, which gets old pretty fast. I dunno, after a hard day's work, I like the idea of being able to go in, sit down at a restaurant, and be served a hot meal (preferably by a hot waitress - those are few and far-between). Call me crazy, but that's my preference. Then, I'll go into the shop and buy a bunch of desserty kind of junk food for later. See, once I go back to the truck, I'm pretty much done. Once I take my workboots off, I really don't want to have to put them back on again. Sometimes I have to, like when the reefer's fucking up, or another driver's meeting me to bring/take something. I bought a pair of shower shoes (flip-flops) a long time ago, so sometimes I'll throw them on if I have to walk back into the truckstop to take a dump or whatever.
Rest stops are popular with some guys, I dunno why. Again, I thinks it's probably out of necesssity rather than anything else. I've often cruised by them at 4 or 5am, and they're totally packed. The "Oasis" system on the Illinois tollroads are kinda like "mini-truckstops," only the parking is very limited, and those poor bastards that don't get a spot have to park on the shoulders and walk. The ones I can't figure out for the life of me are the drivers who park on offramps and onramps. Nothing else around, out in the middle of nowhere. I guess if you have the shits in the middle of the night, you have to go in the bushes. Not my idea of a good time, although I do carry a roll of toilet paper with me just in case of such an emergency. I'll talk more about "Bodily Functions" in an upcoming post. But again, no hot coffee in the "wee hours" is my biggest reason for not parking on shoulders or rest stops (unless you enjoy vending machine coffee - blecchhh!).
I think all you non-truck drivers should experience a truckstop at least once in your lifetimes,
to see how "the other half" lives. And believe me, they are the "other half." I mean, c'mon people! Let's not perpetuate the stereotype of truckers as inbred, toothless, tobacco-spitting
morons. But I'll bet money if you non-truckers go to one, you'll see exactly that. Look, I ain't the cleanest, best smelling guy in the world, but at least I believe in getting a haircut once in a while, and I "own a comb." (tip of the hat to Chris Farley). Some truckstops are more "family-friendly" than others (I won't say which), and some truckers resent that. I mean, it's understandable - who wants to hear a baby crying when you're trying to enjoy your meal after a particularly grueling day? Not me, although it really doesn't bother me all that much. Shit, I only stay at them a couple nights a week, so standing behind the old foagies that can't make up their minds as to what they want to eat ain't that big of a deal. Sure, I get impatient, but not enough to say anything.
The best resource for a truck driver is the truckstop directory. I mean, you can "wing it" and hope you find one along the way. When I first started out with Werner, they told you which truckstops you had to go to, so there really wasn't much choice (wtf?). But that little book has saved my ass on more than one occasion. I remember going up to the UP of Michigan, and there
might be 2 truckstops up there. But I found one - it wasn't the greatest, but...See, that's one of my biggest concerns; being out there and not having a safe place to shut down. Next to getting lost, it's probably my biggest fear. You know, just roaming around, looking for a place, while your hours dwindle down. Not a pleasant thought, is it? Shit, for $10 you can at least have a little sense of security. It's the same with a trucker's atlas; I don't know why anyone who considers themselves a professional truck driver would NOT have a trucker's atlas. It's the best source of info. you could possibly want. Yes, they are expensive, but how much $ is "peace of mind" worth? Think about it.

More soon,

Steve

Sunday, May 6, 2007

Tidbits, pt. 3

"What we have here, is a failure to communicate..." from the movie "Cool Hand Luke"

I am a fucking warrior, ok? In my line of work, you really have to be. I mean, I can take anything these a-holes dish out, come out smelling like a rose, and come back asking for more.
I take no prisoners, and I absolutely take no shit off anyone. That includes my bosses! I figure,
if push comes to shove, I can just tell 'em "Kiss my ass" and walk out the door. There is still a nationwide shortage of drivers ( I mean good drivers), so I'm pretty safe in the knowledge that I can find a job quickly if necessary.
Here's an example of what I mean: last week I get to my Rockford store at 3:30 am and there's a guy in there stripping and waxing the floors. I knew there was going to be trouble when I saw his van parked in front, but I went in anyway. He said "Don't come in here! I just put stripper down..." So, despite the fact that I always delivered this store thru the front door, I went around back and tried to get in. The floor guy was nice enough to open the back door for me.
No dice. The door opened about two feet, blocked on one side by a concrete post, and there's this gigantic dumpster right on the other side - no way for me to squeeze the two-wheeler through.
So I called it in - dispatch said bypass it, move on to the next stop, and double-back to get that store later. I'm also having reefer troubles, and it's raining like a son of a bitch, right? So, I get the reefer taken care of, do my other stops, but I have to make it back to base within 14 hours, and in enough time to do my Thurs. route up to WI. So, I'm done in Rock Island, dreading having to go back to Rockford (a 2hour trip), my dispatcher says, "Why don't we just put it on your WI route?" I said "Fine." But that opened up another world of problems. Now on Thurs.,
I gotta go Mundelein, then Rockford, then all the way back to Kenosha, Racine, etc. I managed it fine, it was just a major pain in the ass.
So, the following week, I do the Rockford store on the first day (Tue) and my last stop is Machesney Park, just north of Rockford. I fucked up and forgot to deliver 20 bales of flour and 20 bales of pizza boxes, which the store had added on and I didn't notice on the invoice. So, I thought "No problem, I'm shut down in Rockford, I'll just leave early, go back to Machesney, drop their stuff off, and boom, off to Dubuque," right? Well, I also figured I'd go through the front door there, because they're digging up the back road/alley there and it's a pain to get into the back parking lot these days. So I pull in the front lot (this time about 4:30am) and, guess who's there? You got it, the floor guy! I'm like, "What the fuck?" So, again, I go back around back, deliver the load, and go. But the full moon must really be fucking with me, ya know?
The bigger problem here is not me running out of time - it's the fact that the morons at the stores did not inform us there would be a floor guy at either location, nor did they tell him that we would be there doing deliveries overnight. So we kind of have to get out of each other's way.
Sometimes there will be construction guys working, doing remodeling at one of the stores; those guys are pretty cool, and it's not a huge inconvenience "working around" them. But not being able to walk on the floor, that's a little different... The aggravating thing is, it won't change: there's no real communication between the store level and the distribution system (at least as far as I can tell), so surprises like this will continue to occur, you just have to deal with it, and go with the flow.
Since I started at 4:00 am, I have until 6:00pm ( 14 hrs) before my time runs out, right?
Ok, so I have my 2 Dubuque stores, then I have a "special" up in Bumblefuck, WI at 11:00am
then down to Rock Island, I figure by 1:30 or so, then I have to do a pickup in Bettendorf (some plastic pallets or something) and back to Chicago before 6:00. Question is, can I make it? I've never been to either the special location or the pickup in Bettendorf, but I have maps to both places. And it's 3 hours from the Quad Cities to Chicago, so I have to be out of Bettendorf before 3:00. Well, the key here was the special delivery. Since I normally get done in Dubuque around 9:30am, I just called the guy and asked for directions ("Can I get a semi into your place?" etc)
As a side note, you just say "Oh, by the way, is it ok if I get there a few minutes early?" Nine times out of ten they'll say "Sure, come on over," which is exactly what this guy said. So, I was able to get to his place by 10:25 or so, and out by 10:45. Now I'm a good 45 mins ahead of schedule, which allows me to do the Rock Island delivery (12:45 - 1:30) get to Bettendorf by 2:00, out by 2:30, and on the road back to Chicago. I made it to the base at almost exactly 5:30.
That's what I mean. See, a lesser driver (less organized, etc.) would not have made it, would have been forced to shut down on the side of the road, then wait 10 hrs before finishing the trip.
Our onboard recorders are basically "bypass-proof," so you can't cheat, like you could if you were on paper logs. And there have been times when guys have had to shut down on the side of the road, because they ran out of time. That's the way it is, and they enforce it like a son of a bitch.

More soon,

Steve